The long awaited Will Smith movie has arrived, and Wild Wild West sure does pack a lot of widgets, gadgets, and creations. Modeled (very) loosely after the miniseries of the same name from the 1960's, Wild Wild West improves in special effects and all of them toys. The movie starts out when Dr. Arliss Loveless returns after a period of absence and unveils his latest creation, an 80 foot high spider that shoots fire - I'm sure we've all seen the previews. Well, from there James T. West (Will Smith) and Artemus Gordon (Kevin Kline) have to band together and put all personal differences aside to stop him from assassinating the president and taking over the country. With a budget of over $100 million dollars (more than was spent during the 4 years it was on television), there are visual goodies galore. Although the movie was fun to watch, the dialogue between Smith and Kline was awkward and they just didn't go together well. The jokes were pretty lame (only 1 or 2 I remember laughing at) and much of the acting was over-acted. Maybe Smith over-acted intentionally, but I just found it disturbing and hard to watch. The worst part of the movie, however, was the chemistry that the director tried to create between Smith and Kline. They just didn't go together. Kline put on another spectacular show, but trying to gain the respect of James West and the love of Rita Escobar (Salma Hayek), he just didn't fit in.

The biggest complaint I have is how much of the movie was contrived and not even possible in a comic book. The 80 foot tall spider could never be pulled off even with all of the smartest scientists in the world working on it. The gadgets on the train only came in handy once and then they were gone from the plot. The whole movie was sooo unbelievable that you just have to suspend reality and try, and I mean try, to enjoy the movie. Sure, it's fun at times, but this movie is just so unbelievably far out, you can't help but notice and ignore the imperfections. The only saving factor of this movie is the star power of Smith because without him, it probably would have never made it to the big screen.

Genres: Comedy, Sci-Fi, Action
Rated: PG-13 - http://www.outermost.net/mra/images/wildwildwest.gif
Runtime: 107 minutes
Talk back in the discussion boards!